23 
PL. CCCXXII. 
ODONTOGLOSSUM PRAESTANS acxs. r. et warscew. 
THE DISTINGUISHED ODONTOGLOSSUM. 
ODONTOGLOSSUM. Vide Lindenia, Engl. ed., vol. I, p. 19. 
Odontoglossum praestans. Pseudobulbi ovoidei, subcompressi. Folia lineari-lanceolata, acuta. Racemi elongati, 
multiflori. Bracteae lanceolatae, acutae, usque ovaria dimidia aequantes, Sepala et petala lineari-lanceolata, acumi- 
nata. Labellum ovato-lanceolatum, acuminatissimum, calli quaterni carinaeformes dentati supra basim. Columna 
clavata, alis porrectis fimbriatis. 
Odontoglossum praestans RcuB. F. & WARSCEW. in Bonplandia, II (1854), p. 99. — RcHB. F. in Gard. Chron., 
1875, pt. II, p. 323. 
ww 
originally discovered near the sources of the Maranon River, in Northern Peru, 
by Warscewicz, who sent home copious dried specimens. According to REicHEN- 
BACH it was also collected in Peru by Smirn, and sent to M* Low. 
Its original introduction to cultivation I have been unable to trace, but 
in 1875 ReIcHENBACH wrote that it flowered very long since at Tooting with 
Messrs Ro.uisson, who sent it to Consul ScniLier, and that it had recently 
appeared in the collection of the Rev. J. B. Norman, at Whitchurch Rectory, 
Edgware, London. It probably soon disappeared again, for it is not included 
in the Orchid Manuals. Fortunately it is once more represented in European 
collections, and as the culture of Odontoglossums is now better understood we 
may hope that this time it has come to stay. It came with an importation received 
some time ago by Messrs Linpen, of Brussels, from Peru, and on the occasion 
of its flowering in January last the annexed portrait was prepared. 
REICHENBACH observes that “ Wacener gathered it but once at Ocana, ” 
but I cannot help suspecting that a mistake of some kind has been made. Its 
Peruvian habitat is undoubted, and Odontoglossums are not distributed over 
such wide tracts of country as to warrant our belief in its presence in a locality 
some thousand miles to the northward, and especially in a district so thoroughly 
known as Ocana, without much stronger evidence than this. Indeed when we 
remember that hitherto it has been very imperfectly known, and that the allied 
species have more than once been confused with each other, I think we may 
safely regard the Ocana plant as something different. 
The flowers, which measure over three inches in diameter, exhale a powerful 
perfume. The sepals and petals are a light buff-yellow, inclining towards 
Ut 
